Treatment For Extreme Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder affects about 2% of all adult individuals and comprises 20% of the population confined in psychiatric institutions. It is commonly observed during adolescence, characterized by mood instability, self-image distrurbance and emotional liability. This ailment is expected to dissolve by maturity, with effective personality development. Though borderline personality disorder is not an incapacitating mental condition, like schizophrenia, it is considered a very serious illness by most psychiatrists because of the harm an afflicted person may bring upon him or her self, during the peak of stress.

About 9 to 75 percent of those diagnosed with borderline personality disorder exhibit self-mutilation, drug addiction, alcoholism and suicidal attempts. Out of this population who practice self destructive behaviors, about 8 to 10% actually die. These alarming results prompt medical experts to address the mental ailment with effective treatments.

The first line of treatment that is recommended is psychotherapy. This helps patients learn to control their emotions, take responsibility for their lives and use positive coping mechanisms to get through challenges. Psychotherapy employs the "no-suicide" contract to lessen the possibility of deaths and at the same time, empower the patient to contradict his own despair and seek support when needed. Psychotherapy also provides an avenue for cognitive restructuring, wherein a person's negative and faulty perception of him or her self and world is corrected.

For extreme cases, hospitalization is advised. Severe depression will drive a person with borderline personality disorder to commit suicide and succeed at it. To prevent this, constant supervision and immediate medical treatment is required. Hospitals and psychiatric institutions have the necessary facilities to secure the individual's safety and health. These establishments also have adequate amounts of staff that could observe and attend to the needs of the patients, in a manner that would be most therapeutic for them.

In conjunction with psychotherapy and hospitalization, medication is given to control the destructive symptoms of borderline personality disorder and improve the person's well-being. Low doses of antipsychotic drugs are given to people with borderline personality disorder during brief psychotic episodes. Antidepressants and anxiolytics are also prescribed for treatment of specific emotional states.

With effective incorporation of all these three treatments, borderline personality disorder can be treated.

Jessica Suarez has spent years on the study on Borderline Personality Disorder, and has written books on BPD treatments.

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